Biography

One of the talented new-generation composers in Taiwan, Wan-Jen Huang was born
in Taichung City in 1970. She has exhibited her fondness and talent for music since she
was a child. She studied piano with Prof. Li-Ying Huang and composition with Prof.
Tseng, She received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees with distinction from the
National Taiwan Normal University. Presently, she teaches music at Taichung’s Stella
Matutina Girls’ High School. She devotes herself to music composition and has written
chamber music works such as People of the Right Side, Greed, Chasing, Construction,
Overlap, among others.

After many years of writing for percussion and working with percussionists such as
Richard Jensen, Tzong-Ching Ju, Ya-Wen Lien, Herman Rieken, Jose Vincent, and
Pei-Ching Wu, Huang has become versatile with the application of a variety of different
percussion tone colors and has challenged the percussionist with innovative musical or
technical possibilities for percussion music. She was commissioned by the Ju Percussion
Group (JPG) to write Flame Dance for marimba solo with six mallets, which was given a
world premiere by Pei-Ching Wu at the Taipei’s National Concert Hall in 1995. Her
percussion works have been played extensively by many percussionists and percussion
groups. The percussion quintet Adventure commissioned by the JPG was premiered by
the world renowned Amsterdam Percussion Group in the Taipei International Percussion
Convention (TIPC) at Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in 1996. It was well received by
percussionists and audiences alike at the festival. In 1999 the same work was expanded as
a septet and was performed by the Taipei Percussion. The JPG has also performed the
piece at PASIC 2000 to critical acclaim.

Her music attempts to portray the emotions of the human being and the greatness of
nature. These elements are evident in works such as Adventure. Her refreshing and
creative styles as well as delicate composition techniques are quite well received by
audiences in Taiwan and abroad.[1]